"Coffee," Robotnik said, as he walked into the bridge. Without hesitation a robot immediately poured him a mug full from a pot less than two feet from where the scientist was standing. It was now about half three in the morning, and though Robotnik had been pre-occupied tying up a few personal loose ends, his robots had now secured Palm Bay, leaving the only place unguarded as Capital Lake City, the largest city with a population of over twenty five thousand. In contrast, Robotnik's robots were now numbering about eleven thousand, with his factories producing constantly, and shipping out new pawns as soon as they were complete.
Capital Lake City was on full alert, and though Eggman had been successful in pinning them down inside the city, they were bolstered in, and had spent the last few hours preparing defences. If Palm Bay had a head start, then Capital Lake started a lap ahead.
But Robotnik wasn't worried. While Capital Lake City had the largest population, the population was much like the other cities, full of young children, elderly, and others who were not combat experienced. The actual combat ready populace was much lower, and in these sorts of battles, the sheer number of civilians running around panicked caused problems for any defensive force.
Considering his army was still pumping out machines, Robotnik gained a larger advantage the longer the battle went on, assuming he didn't lose more machines than he could make. However, he still wanted the island before morning, so he could fortify as much of the island as possible before either GUN sent a strike force, or another, much bluer adversary turned up, offering an alleged freedom to the robots that were perfectly happy to serve Robotnik.
Robotnik now had one other advantage on his side. His number two soldier was now free to assist. Egg Pawn's were mass produced, cheap units, who had strength's primarily in their quantity and capability with a range of tools and weapons. Metal however was a very different machine, with a much more sophisticated AI, extremely tough armour, speed that matched, and even surpassed the fastest things on the planet, and a crippling array of attacks and abilities that could cause significant damage.
Furthermore, Robotnik had no use for three cities, even if he wanted them. His robots could be stored in a warehouse when not needed. He only realistically needed one city for power generation, resource storage, and as a base for a lot of his equipment. The second city would serve a useful place to stash munitions, keeping them a safe distance from everything else, just in case. The last city was therefore redundant, and could, in the human's opinion, be destroyed if needed.
The Egg Battalion hung in the air over Capital Lake like a nightmarish beast of old. It sat, fire licking from its exhausts, waiting, an ominous sign to all life bellow that their chances were slim. What the people of Capital Lake City hoped for was a superfast blue hedgehog to save them.
What they got was a superfast blue robot. Metal wasted no time in getting started, directly leading the charge right off the bat by jumping straight into the fray and taking down three police officers with one charge. With that, hundreds of orange and red Egg Pawns followed suit, flooding into the city, and grabbing anyone they could grab, making absolutely no distinction between people.
Metal would rush people quickly, moving between people in the blink of an eye, his AI working out the next target before he'd even passed the last one on to an Egg Pawn to be taken away. A small squadron followed him with a prison egg, ordered by Metal directly to do nothing but follow, his movements increasing the efficiency of that particular squadrons capture rate by over three hundred percent. Within minutes, the blue robot had managed to grab over fifty people.
But many more still remained. Some cowered hiding in fear, others ran aimlessly, some even took what they thought to be the most sensible option, and directly surrendering. All the while Eggman stood watching, his airship providing small aerial bombardment, breaking up any potential resistance.
As time ticked away, Robotnik watched as block after block fell. Each section lit up on his map, a sea of red dots slowly turning green as they worked to the centre. The City Centre itself was heavily defended, with the army shooting any and all robots, taking them out with heavy artillery. They had set up emergency defences hiding inside skyscrapers. It was something that had not escaped Robotnik's detection, even if he couldn't pinpoint their location.
"If they won't come out," the general said to his bridge crew, "We'll have to force them out. Arm the laser canons, target city hall."
The Egg Battalion's lasers glowed into life. Six neon green lights, flickering at the base of the Egg Battalion, all focusing inwards to a seventh point. It too slowly glowed brighter.
"This one's for you Mayor Wally," Robotnik cried out over the external PA system, "Courtesy of the Eggman Empire." With that the laser fired, tearing straight through the roof and walls of the building, utterly obliterating them, like they were made of paper. As the dust settled, Robotnik spoke again, "I'm willing to accept your surrender any time."
Robotnik didn't get a reply back. He didn't expect one, not now. The city was in no position to formerly arrange one. The map was now two thirds Robotnik's, and most the areas left didn't contain any officially recognised government offices.
More and more Egg Pawns flew into the city. Some returning having already dropped off a load of captives, others completely new, created from those caught in Nortropolis and Palm Bay. Meanwhile the number of people still left to be captured shrank. The people were already getting beaten down. In all the years, having heard the stories of all the monstrosities Eggman had committed, never did they expect to be on the receiving end of it.
The computer next to Robotnik beeped. A grin spread across Robotnik's face as he glanced at it, the number of available Egg Pawn's was now greater than the total number of people. Even though there had been no formal surrender, and there were still over ten thousand people still running around not yet captured, as far as Robotnik was concerned, victory was assured.
Still, despite it being very early in the morning, Robotnik could not retire to sleep, not yet. He would not allow himself the much needed pleasure until his troops outnumbered the resistance by at least two to one.
Robotnik repositioned the Egg Battalion. It moved towards the army base, the last major stronghold. As he did he started getting notifications of incoming missiles. This was the true test of the Egg Battalions defences. The best anti-air missiles Northside Island had to offer collided hard against the ship, the force of which rocked the floating base. But the damage was minimal, a few minor dents and some scratched paint at the point of impact.
Robotnik took this time to return fire, choosing conventional machine guns to drive the soldiers out. Firing a small volley of missiles alongside, to destroy the army's missile launchers, he watched via camera feed as the soldiers fled their defences, right into the waiting arms of his Egg Pawns. Sure a few of them, with their military skill managed to take down a few Egg Pawns, but they were outnumbered, and were as good as his as soon as Robotnik saw Metal join in.
A scant few resisted further, but by six AM it was over. Sure, there were probably a few still hiding, there were always a couple, but he had managed to effectively take the entire city, and any who fled would be rounded up later.
With victory his, Robotnik made his way to bed. His machines would begin fortifying right away, but for now, the human needed to sleep.
